Johann
A masculine given name of Germanic origin meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 4,915 living Americans carry the first name Johann. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 88.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Johann today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Johann births was 2010 (222 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Johann. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Johann with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Johann was once a predominantly female name but has become increasingly popular for boys in recent decades.
People living today
4.9K
~ 1 in 69,736 Americans
Peak year
2010
222 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,792
Tracked since 1912
Census
Johann in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,853 people with the first name Johann, which placed it at #3,530 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,530
National first-name rank
People counted
5.9K
5,853 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
39.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Johann
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Johann is White at 39.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (38.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (10.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Johann described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Johann at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White39.3% · 2,299
- Hispanic or Latino38.3% · 2,243
- Asian and Pacific Islander10.1% · 591
- Black or African American7.4% · 435
- Two or more races4.6% · 272
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 13
Gender
Gender distribution for Johann
Johann leans heavily male at 88.0% of total registrations, but 650 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Johann as a male name
- Ranked #1,792 in 2024
- 91 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2010 (222 births)
Johann as a female name
- Ranked #17,314 in 2004
- 5 female births in 2004
- Peak: 1934 (26 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Johann leans strongly male. 5,291 people counted with this name were male (90.4%), compared with 562 female bearers (9.6%).
Popularity
Johann: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Johann from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,570 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Johann by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Johann during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Johanns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Johann, while Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 118 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Johann
The name Johann has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, derived from the name Yochanan meaning "Yahweh is gracious." This name later evolved into the Greek form Ioannes and the Latin Johannes.
The name Johann gained widespread popularity across Europe during the Middle Ages, particularly in Germanic regions. It became a common name among Germans, Austrians, and Dutch, with variations such as Hans, Hannes, and Jan.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Johann can be found in the Bible's New Testament, where John the Baptist and John the Apostle are mentioned. The name also appears in various medieval manuscripts and historical records from the 9th century onwards.
Throughout history, numerous notable individuals have borne the name Johann. One of the most renowned is Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), the legendary German composer and musician whose works have had a profound impact on Western classical music.
Another famous Johann is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), a German writer, poet, and philosopher who is widely regarded as one of the greatest literary figures of the modern era. His works, such as "Faust" and "The Sorrows of Young Werther," have left an indelible mark on literature.
Johann Gutenberg (c. 1400-1468), the German inventor credited with the introduction of the printing press with movable type, revolutionized the spread of knowledge and facilitated the Renaissance by making books more accessible.
In the realm of science, Johann Kepler (1571-1630), a German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer, is renowned for his laws of planetary motion and contributions to the scientific revolution.
Finally, Johann Strauss (1825-1899), an Austrian composer known as the "Waltz King," composed numerous waltzes, polkas, and operettas that became synonymous with Viennese culture and remain beloved to this day.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Johann
People
Johann + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Johann as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Johann: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Johann?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,915 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Johann going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 69,736 US residents.
Is Johann a common name?
We classify Johann as "Rare". It ranks above 96.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,434 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Johann most popular?
The single biggest year for Johann was 2010, when 222 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Johann is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Johann in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,853 people with the name Johann, or 1.94 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,530 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Johann in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Johann?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Johann leans strongly male. 5,291 people counted with this name were male (90.4%), compared with 562 female bearers (9.6%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Johann?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Johann is White at 39.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (38.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (10.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Johann most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Johann in the 2020 Census, accounting for 39.3% (2,299 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Johann in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Johann a male name?
Yes, 88.0% of people registered as Johann in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Johann still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Johann in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Johann can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Johann?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.